North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised to use nuclear weapons to counter threats from the United States hours after test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICMB), the latest escalation as the UN Security Council prepares to convene an emergency session on Pyongyang’s actions.North Korea test-fired what it said was a Hwasong-17 ICBM, which can travel up to 15,000 km (9,320 miles), on Friday shortly after warning of “fiercer military responses” to Washington.KCNA said the Hwasong-17 launched on Friday was aimed at achieving “the most powerful and absolute nuclear deterrence” and described the missile as “the strongest strategic weapon in the world”.Kim hailed the test launch a success, declaring it as confirmation of North Korea’s “maximum capacity to contain any nuclear threat” and a warning to US President Joe Biden’s administration and allies that any military provocation would trigger their “self-destruction”, KCNA reported.Friday’s ICBM launch and sabre-rattling statements come just days after Biden pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping in their first face-to-face meeting during the G20 talks in Bali to make it known to Kim that Washington would not stand for its “long-range nuclear tests”."